Wisconsin Department of Administration secretary Scott Neitzel says the $41.9 million Miller High Life Theatre remodeling in 2003 was ill-advised and hampers a possible Wisconsin Center convention hall expansion, drawing an acknowledgment from former Wisconsin Center District chairman Frank Gimbel that “we shouldn’t have done” the project.

Gimbel’s response to Neitzel’s criticism is surprising considering that the Milwaukee attorney, who chaired the Wisconsin Center District for 20 years, consistently has defended converting the old Milwaukee Auditorium, 500 W. Kilbourn Ave., to a 4,000-seat theater. The Miller High Life Theatre, which previously was known as the Milwaukee Theatre, has struggled to attract shows and other events.

Neitzel, who took over in 2015 as chairman of theater owner the Wisconsin Center District, cited the theater project as a “cautionary tale” of a public taxing body plowing forward with a project without sufficient research. Neitzel said the $20 million-plus remaining debt from the theater project is “somewhat of a drag on the finances” of the Wisconsin Center District as it looks at funding for a possible convention center expansion.

Neitzel called the decision by the Gimbel-led Wisconsin Center District board to proceed “sub-optimal.”

“There was a lot of ‘Yes, we have to do this, we have to do this, we have to do this’ and maybe if there had been a little more time, a little more research — maybe double-clutch or two — that decision might’ve been different,” Neitzel said in an interview with the Milwaukee Business Journal. “I wasn’t here. I don’t know all the factors that were looked at.”

Gimbel, in an interview Thursday, said that all the Wisconsin Center District board members in the early 2000s except then-Milwaukee Ald. Tom Nardelli, who is deceased, voted for the project to convert the 1909-vintage Milwaukee Auditorium to a modern live performance venue.

“The Auditorium lost its purpose essentially for being a commercial venue within which we could do much business,” Gimbel said.

Before deciding to proceed with a project, Wisconsin Center District officials held discussions with possible new users for the Auditorium including the Harley-Davidson museum and the American Bowling Congress, Gimbel said.

Wisconsin Center District representatives borrowed the idea for a 4,000-seat theater from discussions with Bradley Center officials who were considering such a project at the time, Gimbel said. The concept was for a venue that was larger than the existing Uihlein Hall at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts and the Riverside Theater, Gimbel said.

One challenge has been that the Marcus Center has the inside track on Broadway and Disney shows that could play the Miller High Life Theatre. The other is that Gary Witt’s Pabst Theater Group has successfully booked dozens of shows annually at the Riverside since 2005.

“I don’t think we appropriately considered the muscle of the competition,” Gimbel said. “Our calculations with respect to the volume of shows that could be consumed in Milwaukee was obviously off base.”

“That combination is what I think killed the ability of the theater to generate shows that would generate income,” he said. “And looking back at it, I think one would say that we shouldn’t have done it.”

Another miscalculation of the Milwaukee Theatre project was the ultimate construction cost, which initially was supposed to be slightly more than $30 million, Gimbel said. After work had started, the center district board learned that the old structure’s north wall wouldn’t support the plans for the new venue and addressing the problem cost another $10 million, Gimbel said.

The additional debt to cover the unanticipated theater costs adds to the financial pressure today on the Wisconsin Center District for a new project like the proposed convention center expansion, Gimbel said.

Still, Gimbel said he and the Wisconsin Center District board made the best decision they could at the time to revamp the old auditorium.

“Anybody and everybody can look back at a decision that was made by your ancestors and say ‘That was not a good decision,’” he said. “But I think the decision was very sound at the time it was made and I have no regrets of the decision.”

Gimbel called the Miller High Life Theatre “an extraordinary asset” for Milwaukee that will last for years to come.

The theater space this year is hosting events on 74 days. While most of the public’s focus is on concerts and Broadway shows, the building also hosts numerous special events and high school and college graduation ceremonies.

Neitzel said he’s not ready to tear down the building, unless a buyer comes along with lots of money and a better use. He said the goal now is to activate the building as often as possible.

“It appears from the outside looking in that it’s too big to be intimate and it’s too small to have major big shows,” Neitzel said. “And I think maybe the thinking was at one time that’s a niche that could be filled, that’s a venue that doesn’t exist in the marketplace. But in retrospect maybe there was a reason why that niche did not exist in the marketplace. We are where we are.”